Adopting a dog treated for anaplasmosis/ehrlichia: long-term?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Hello - I'm in the process of adopting a dog and was informed that he tested positive for anaplasmosis and ehrlichia disease from previous tick bites. They've since treated him with doxycycline and he's completed the treatment. I'm just wondering if there are any long-term implications of these diseases or any considerations I should have before adopting. He's 1-2 year old, corgi mix.
2 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on February 7th, 2018
Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! As long as your dog has been treated and is now healthy, there should not be any long term effects of the infection. However, in the future, testing for these infections may be difficult, as false positive results are possible. Your dog may be a carrier of Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichia life long, but this disease is not transmitted to humans. You should be careful if you are planning to, or have, another dog. I hope this helps and that all is well!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on August 5th, 2017
Ehrlichia does not typically result in any long term effects if treated appropriately. A 30 day regimen of doxycycline typically does the trick. The dog may show positive on an ehrlichia test for the remainder of its like since it will always carry antibodies to the disease. However, in the absence of clinical signs, this is not something to worry about usually. If you like this dog, I don't think you should allow this previous disease to influence your decision of adopting it. Go for it!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Health & Wellbeing
I am thinking of adopting a dog from Cyprus, I live in the U.K. She had a positive test for ehrlichiosis, treated with doxycycline for 4 weeks. A retest shows her to still have ehrlichiosis antibodies, she is and always has been asymptomatic. Should
As she recently suffers from Erlichiosis it is normal for her to test positive in such a test, her body created a large quantity of antibodies during the active stage of the disease and the antibodies will remain for several years in her system, this does not mean she is still suffering from the disease.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
My 2yr old female Havanese was positive for anaplasma phagocytophilum platy on a routine test before adoption. Given doxycycline 100mg daily for 30 days. She has no symptoms abnormal. She plays and eats well. Do I need to be concerned about future h
Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. Generally I will treat for 4-6 weeks with Doxycycline and then send out an anaplasmosis PCR to see if the patient is still positive. The test used in most vet clinics is a simple snap test that detects circulating antibodies to the anaplasma. It is likely that Molly will be positive on this snap test for years to come. This does not mean she is actively infected, just that she has had previous exposure to the infection. If you want to confirm she is negative after treatment, then a PCR test would be the test to run. Generally after successful treatment, I do not see any health complications. No annual testing is needed but a PCR might be something to consider running for the first 12 months every 6 months after treatment. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. I am also available via consultation if needed.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
My furbaby had an ehrlichia abt 5 mos ago, she successfully completed the treatment (21 days of antibiotic as prescribed by vet) & I made the mistake of not giving her monthly tick preventive & I saw 1 tick on her 3 days ago but she is well. my quest
That is a great question, and one that doesn't really have a crystal clear answer. If she was initially treated during the acute phase, its possible that that bacteria was completely eliminated. It is possible that the antibodies produced by her body may prevent a second infection, however there is no guarantee of this. If a second infection develops, it is more likely to be subclinical, and it may or may not ever progress to being chronic and symptomatic. Having said all of that, I wouldn't be overly stressed. Use a monthly tick prevention moving forward, and if she develops any symptoms of illness, take her to your vet. https://www.petcarerx.com/article/identify-ehrlichiosis-symptoms-at-all-3-stages-of-the-disease/1545 Thank you for asking Boop by Petco!
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hello. We'd like a second opinion on how long we should wait between E. canis treatments? Our dog has received 2 cycles of treatment (Vibramycin, then Vibramycin and Imizol) inside of 6 months, and the vet said to wait until Jan 2019 to repeat bloodw
That sounds like an appropriate treatment. It can take 6-12 months for the antibody levels to fall back down to negative, although sometimes they never fully clear. It's very important to keep him on a good tick preventative at all times because he can definitely get reinfected at any point. He has antibodies in his system still, but that doesn't indicate an active infection. You could request a PCR test to try to look for active infection, but unless he's still ill and you and your vet can't figure out why, I don't see the value in this.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
If anaplasmosis and erlichia tests are positive, but no symptoms at all should the dog be treated?
This is a tricky situation because there isn't a definitive answer with these circumstances. If a dog is positive for either (or both) Anaplasma and Erhlichia, then at a minimum, a CBC (complete blood count) should be run to check on the red & white blood cells, and platelets. Both of these diseases can affect blood cells, which can lead to bleeding issues. If any blood cell lines are affected, then yes, the dog should be treated. If all blood cell counts are normal and the dog is asymptomatic, then there's a bit more of a gray area. As in human medicine, veterinary medicine tries to be cautious in our use of antibiotics, which are the drugs used to treat these infections. Obviously, it's important to use antibiotics when they're needed. If they aren't absolutely necessary, then we should avoid overuse because this leads to bacterial resistance, meaning that the antibiotics may not work when we really need them. Personally, I tend to not treat positive dogs that are asymptomatic with n
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hi! My dog was diagnosed with Ehrlichia in Sep 29, 2016. She had her second outbreak in Nov, 2016 and another one Apr, 2017. She's a 10 y/o & 6lbs chihuahua. Normally I give her doxycycline during the outbreak. How can I avoid/prevent she gets a
This can be a tricky situation. First of all, it needs to be determined if Paulina is experiencing recurrence of her initial Ehrlichia infection or if she is becoming reinfected with each outbreak. Unfortunately, this is exceptionally difficult to determine. The best thing you can do is to keep Paulina on a high quality flea and tick preventative (such as Nexgard, Bravecto or K9 Advantix II) regularly since Ehrlichia is a tick-borne disease. You can also take Paulina to her vet for CBC (complete blood cell count) monitoring every 1-3 months so that an outbreak can be treated before it becomes more severe. I hope this helps and that Paulina does not experience future recurrences of Ehrlichia!
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
my dog was tested positive for Ehrlichia. we'll be going again in 3 weeks to be retested but after i wanted it better explained to me. a few weeks ago i found a tick on him so i think its from that one. Our vet said it wasn't curable i think and that
Hello and thank you for your post! I am sorry to hear that Spock has ehrlichia. This disease is treatable and can be cured. However, you should know that the test most veterinary clinics use is a snap test to detect antibodies against ehrlichia. If you are going back in 3 weeks to have this same test performed, Spock will likely continue to show a positive result. This is because his body has made antibodies against ehrlichia. If he had a previous infection and ehrlichia is not causing any of these symptoms, he will still show positive on this SNAP test so if you are going in to have the same SNAP test performed I would have your veterinarian send out a tick fever PCR test to the laboratory. This will detect DNA to ehrlichia and not antibodies. If Spock is positive on the PCR, it means that he has a current active infection. If you do not know if Spock has ever had your licio previously, I would still treat this with Doxycycline for 4 to 6 weeks total treatment time. I hope this helps,
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
My dog tested positive for anaplasmosis in somepredental blood work. Her CBCwas normal. My vet has recommended treatment with minocycline 100mg daily for 28 days. She does not show any clinical symptoms. My husband and I are concerned about treating
Hi there and thank you for using Boop by Petco to address your concern. Even if Chloe is non-symptomatic, I would recommend following through with the treatment, as Minocycline is not harmful and it is best to treat and assume the infection has been treated. This is regular practice and is done quite often. There is a confirmatory test for Anaplasmosis called a PCR. I would discuss this with your vet if you would like to help confirm an active infection. The test used in clinics typically detects antibodies, so if Chloe was exposed to Anaplasma previously and the infection resolved on its own, her body likely developed antibodies against Anaplasma and will be detected on the antibody test for years to come. So the snap test used in clinics does not confirm an active infection, just that the animal has circulating antibodies to Anaplasma, which could indicate an active infection or a previous infection. The PCR is generally an expensive test to confirm ($200-300) versus putting the anim
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hi. My dog Obi, who turns 1 year old on june 12 was recently diagnosed and managed as a case of Ehrlichiosis. She was given Doxycycline for 7 days, but we did not complete the prescribed treatment of 30 days. She got well, good appetite and playful,
This could indicate that all dogs are infected. I suspect Obi was never cleared of the bacteria. It is more likely that all dogs were exposed to the same tick population and that is how they all got infected versus one dog infecting the rest. I recommend contacting your veterinarian and discussing if they would like to put all your dogs on the full 30 day course of doxycycline at this point.
Updated on September 24th, 2025
Health & Wellbeing
Hi experts.. I have done another blood test for Ghontu. It is mentioned that Ehrlichia is detected and is positive. Also Alkalaline Phosphatase is high as mentioned. Could you please have a look at the attached report and suggest? I am concerned with
Hello, and thanks for using Boop by Petco. You're right that Ghontu tested positive for Ehrlichia - but keep in mind that is an "antibody" test, meaning it tests for *exposure* to a disease and doesn't necessarily mean she has Ehrlichia. If a dog is exposed to Ehrlichia and their immune system does its job and successfully clears the body of the Ehrlichia infection, they will still show a positive result on that test. So it's not cause for panic! I defer to your regular vet to determine how worried they are, based on Ghontu's exam and other findings. If they feel treatment is appropriate, they will probably start Ghontu on a 4-week course of medication.
The ALP is a bit elevated, but that elevation is quite mild and wouldn't have me too worried. Again, I would defer to your usual vet. But unless they had reason to worry about the ALP specifically, I wouldn't think twice about that ALP value.
Hope this helps!
Updated on September 24th, 2025
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